The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) has dispensed $32 million CAD across 24 artificial intelligence (AI) and tech businesses in the regions of Toronto, Hamilton, Ont. and Ottawa.
Earlier this week, FedDev Ontario announced an investment of $7 million in six Ottawa-area tech companies that are scaling up and commercializing products. The next day, Ruby Sahota, the minister responsible for FedDev Ontario, visited fleet management company GoFleet to announce another $25 million going to 18 companies around Toronto and Hamilton.
“FedDev Ontario funding will enable us to go from lab to revenue in less than 18 months.”
The supported Ottawa companies included drone company AVSS, communications tech company CCAI, space software company Mission Control, mobile command communications company Nortac Defence, and caregiver support platform Trualta Care Network.
The largest commitment of the Ottawa companies went to InPho, which received $3 million to support the commercialization of its new high-speed fiber optic chips, which FedDev said would ensure quicker uploads, downloads, and AI requests.
The speed of InPho’s chips would not have been possible without Canada investing in its research and development work, Inpho CEO Joe Costello said in a statement.
“FedDev Ontario funding will enable us to go from lab to revenue in less than 18 months which would not have happened without FedDev Ontario,” Costello said.
Mission Control got the smallest amount of funding of the Ottawa batch, receiving $150,000 to expand its Spacefarer platform and launch its Spacefarer AI platform, which looks to implement AI onboard spacecraft. In October 2024, Mission Control signed an international partnership to build and operate a satellite using its AI algorithms with American satellite company Spire.
RELATED: Toronto and Waterloo Region orgs get $34 million in FedDev funding
Among the 18 supported Toronto and Hamilton area companies is ACTO Technologies, GoFleet, Ada, and Loop Financial.
ACTO received $3 million to commercialize its generative AI-powered sales and marketing software for the life sciences sector, while GoFleet received $2.7 million to develop and commercialize its fleet management platform. GoFleet’s telematics software provides fleet managers with GPS, dash camera, and other data in a dashboard to monitor the status of vehicles and drivers.
Meanwhile, AI-powered customer support platform Ada received $1.75 million to help commercialize its phone-based generative AI customer assistance platform. Ada became one of Canada’s unicorn startups when it raised a $130-million USD (then about $157 million CAD) Series C round at a reported valuation of $1.2 billion in May 2021. The company went on to make staff cuts in 2022 and 2023, citing a tightened economy.
FinTech startup Loop Financial also received $750,000 to support its banking services platform. After pivoting from peer-to-peer lending to international financial management, Loop announced a $6.4-million CAD seed extension round this past September to expand its product offerings.
Last month, FedDev Ontario doled out $34 million in federal funding to help create new tech and life sciences hubs and help scale startups, across Waterloo Region and Toronto.
Feature image courtesy Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Jenna Sudds.